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CapitaLand Commercial Trust DPU up 8.9% to 2.2 S cents for Q3

CAPITALAND Commercial Trust (CCT) has posted a distribution per unit (DPU) of 2.20 Singapore cents for the third quarter, up 8.9 per cent from the same period last year.

Gross revenue for the three months ended Sept 30 was S$100.51 million, up 35.6 per cent from the same period a year earlier on contributions from the acquisitions of Gallileo in Frankfurt as well as Asia Square Tower 2, which offset the loss in revenue from divesting Wilkie Edge and Twenty Anson.

Net property income jumped 37.3 per cent to S$80.4 million. Distributable income rose 13.1 per cent to S$82.7 million.

Kevin Chee, chief executive of the Reit (real estate investment trust) manager, said: "Since assuming ownership of Asia Square Tower 2, CCT has ramped up its occupancy from 90.5 per cent as at Dec 31 last year to 98.1 per cent as at Sept 30."

Across CCT’s Singapore portfolio, committed occupancy as at Sept 30 was 99.1 per cent, above the Central Business District (CBD) market occupancy rate of 94.6 per cent, he said. Gallileo in Germany is fully occupied.

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For the third quarter, CCT signed about 448,000 square feet (sq ft) of new and renewal leases, of which 27 per cent are new. New demand for space came largely from companies in real estate and property services, business consultancy, IT, media and telecommunications and financial services.

All lease renewals in 2018 had been completed, and 12 per cent of lease renewals due 2019 (based on monthly gross rental income) were completed, CCT said.

The Reit said in its outlook statement: "Singapore’s average monthly Grade A office rent kept its growth trajectory in the third quarter with a quarter-on-quarter growth rate of 3.5 per cent... Consultants expect market rents to continue trending upwards in 2019 given limited gross new supply coming onstream in Singapore CBD."

At the end of September, 81 per cent of CCT’s attributable portfolio net lettable area was in Grade A assets. CCT remains predominantly Singapore-focused with about 95 per cent of its investment property value in Singapore and the remaining 5 per cent in Germany.

Net asset value per unit was S$1.81 as at Sept 30, from S$1.78 as at Dec 31.

Third-quarter DPU was calculated based on total units issued as at Sept 30, which included 130 million new CCT
units issued for the equity placement in May, and 513.5 million new CCT units issued via a rights issue in October 2017.

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